


The Hour In Between

by 6zippy



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Gen, Just a couple guys stuck in a dark room
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:40:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26455795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/6zippy/pseuds/6zippy
Summary: Hey, and we hope this isn’t too personal, because we really don’t mean to interrupt the day you're having or cause you any unneeded stress, but have you ever fallen victim to a rotten hotdog that you ate with a couple of pals in an alleyway? Probably not. We’re pretty sure it’s not a very common way to get sick (except maybe in New York City) (Reggie still thought it still would be best to ask anyways— just in case). If you have, first off we’d like to offer you condolences, cause that sucks (we’ve been there). But, if you’re up for it, could you help a couple guys out by answering this question; did you hallucinate that you were floating out of an ambulance too? Or is that just an us thing?
Comments: 11
Kudos: 143





	The Hour In Between

**Author's Note:**

> After re-watching this show for the third time I began to wonder about what happened in between Luke, Reggie and Alex's deaths and them popping out of Julie's CD, so I wrote it.

Psych Central describes the five stages of grief as universal and experienced by all, “Mourning occurs in response to an individual’s own terminal illness, the loss of a close relationship, or to the death of a valued being, human, or animal.” It’s a tough and long process sometimes, coming to terms with mortality is frightening. It’s even worse when you’re doing it from the afterlife.

So people say.

STAGE 1: DENIAL

Wherever they were, it was dark.

Alex had never seen a place like the one he and 2/3 of his band mates were in. It looked like a bedroom in the dead of night with the lights shut off— except without the furniture, the door, or anything else that makes something a bedroom. The only thing the boys could see were each other, which was kind of a letdown. Alex had always hoped that his first hallucination would be better than whatever this was, with bright colors, adoring fans and maybe a crowd surf or two. He didn’t envision an eternal nothingness where all good dreams go to die.

“Hey guys..” Reggie began speaking from an estimated 6-8 feet away from Alex, it was hard to tell though, the endless space warping Alex’s perception of length. Reggie looked confused— so at least this manifestation from tainted food was accurate in one part. He looked the same as before, just a little more wound up, tugging the neck of his shirt. If Alex thought this was in any way real he’d be nervous for him, “I don’t think we are um— of the living” 

A warning bell rings in Alex’s brain, “Shut up!” he bursts, beginning to pace, he couldn’t just be dead, that’s just not an option, “We can’t be dead, we just can’t.”

Alex was never known as someone who was calm. Most of it came from the intense anxiety that plagued his life, it was one of Alex’s parents least favorite things about him (besides the drums and the gayness): But death? Death wasn’t in the cards, death wasn’t going to make him feel secure, or any less stressed, so Alex concluded that he was not dead, because death tends to only make things worse, and permanent. 

Luke, who was currently on the other side of Alex begins to inch closer to him, visibly concerned at his bandmate’s erratic behavior, “I mean we did kinda float out of an ambulance Alex. I’d call that pretty damning evidence on the side of us being goners.”

Alex brushes his friend off, his brain feels like mush, there’s no way that he’s dead, it just couldn’t be what was happening to them, no way, “Do you know how many things I wanted to accomplish, Luke?” His voice breaks, “I had this whole list planned out, down to the fucking T.” Alex feels like his mind is running in circles as he continues to get more frightened, “I was gonna play all around the world, get arrested for arson— or some other cool sounding crime. I was gonna have one of those— like— introspective phases where I start making hippie music for a couple years— god I was gonna get my first kiss. It can’t just be over, like that.”

“You know if you need a first kiss I could offer you—” Reggie prompted, ignoring the rest of his friend’s meltdown. 

“I don’t want a damn pity kiss.”

“Well, if we are stuck here for eternity, I'm kinda the best shot you got.”

“Good thing we aren’t dead then hair gel.”

STAGE 2: ANGER

“Fuck you meat, you slick sick son of a bitch.” Reggie began yelling at a patch of darkness, “You tempted me with love, with nice savory goodness and then you ripped my body apart like it was nothing.” 

“Are you going to be this dramatic for the rest of time?” Alex questioned, now sitting in the darkness. 

“Maybe, I haven’t decided yet.”

“Well could you do it quieter?” 

“Can you two annoying children shut the fuck up?” Luke screamed, “We failed. Who cares how.”

Luke wasn’t big on failure, he didn’t take it well, even as a kid. His family had banned Monopoly in the house when Luke was 12 after he had flushed at least 3 pieces of the game down the toilet after losing. A week after his 15th birthday he had punched 2 separate holes in his room which he covered up with posters (it took two weeks for his parents to discover them— which was one more week than Luke thought it would be). In response, his mom set up a therapy appointment for him, Luke never went. 

Even if he’d seen Dr. Stevens, Luke was pretty sure he still wouldn’t have been able to handle the kind of defeat he was experiencing now. 

“We had our whole future ahead of us, we were probably going to be stars. And yet here we are, in an abyss, forever. We failed. ” Luke fumed. He wanted to punch a wall— scream, or just spontaneously combust (he wasn’t picky on which came first). 

“This could still just be a group hallucination, we don’t know.” Alex attempted to calm Luke (and himself), but the guy was too far gone. 

“We were going to have the biggest show of our lives, and now it’s gone, our chance at everything that we gave up for music is done.” Luke sighs, muttering to himself, “Nothing that I did even matters anymore.” 

STAGE 3: BARGAINING 

Reggie was scared, like shit in the pants scared. He wondered if ghosts could shit their pants in fear, or that ‘shitting yourself’ was doomed to be only a metaphor for the rest of his afterlife. 

Ghosts could cry, that much was true, Alex had been proving that by spending the last five minutes sobbing in a patch of darkness.

God, why did Reggie ever need to ask these questions, why did he have to be dead? So, instead of continuously wondering about what his afterlife is going to be now, he decided to pray.

Reggie wasn’t ever that religious of a guy and hey, praying may not be so useful when you’re already dead, but it was worth a shot because, honestly, there wasn’t anything better to do. 

“Oh lord, or whatever is watching us” Reggie began, kneeling on the ground, “I’m sorry for playing rock music, just please don’t send me to eternal damnation. That so wouldn’t be cool.” 

Luke turned towards Reggie with a flippant expression, stopping whatever clear internal crisis was going on in his head (Reggie would bet 20 ghost dollars that he was punching walls in his brain) “Are you seriously apologizing for playing rock music so you can go to heaven right now?” 

Reggie ignored his friend’s questioning, his mom had told him all the reasons he was going to hell and he wanted to get through them all just to cover his bases, “I also apologize for wearing patterned shirts, not going to church after I moved out because it smelled like old people, and playing Satan's instrument, the bass.” Reggie paused, “Wait hold on God or whatever, i’m gonna try to make a list.” 

STAGE 4: DEPRESSION 

Alex was still crying on the floor of never ending darkness. Luke and Reggie couldn’t decipher what exactly their friend was crying about, and with the day that the three of them had, he could be crying about at least 5 different things. Sometimes, Alex would turn his head towards the two guys, attempting to let out a word, which was quickly muffled by sobs. 

Alex couldn’t comprehend that his entire life, the years he wanted to spend as himself, authentically were prematurely snuffed out, like it was nothing. He wanted a life refund, or one of those plastic participation trophies you get in little league, with the words, ‘you tried’ on it— at the very least, Alex just wanted a shoulder to cry on. 

Luke doesn’t handle tears, or emotions, or much of anything well. It was probably an internal white boy thing, where you bottle up your feelings until you drop dead— and even after that. So yeah, maybe he was standing in a patch of darkness far away from Alex because he couldn’t handle the sobs. 

And then something clicked, and maybe Luke felt his knuckles instinctively harden because it finally sunk in that this “place” was going to be where he’ll spend forever in, and maybe because of that fact all he wanted to do was scream on the top of his lungs at how unfair the world is, but only maybe. 

Reggie concluded that if he kept wondering about his newfound ghost powers he would forget that he died. He discovered that he could teleport, (he preferred the term, ‘poofing’, but he was pretty sure that was an unpopular opinion) which was fun— and that almost made him feel like a ghost superhero. But that feeling of elation didn’t last very long. Soon, the instinctive cool factor of having powers wore off, and all Reggie felt was numb. 

STAGE 5: ACCEPTANCE 

Alex spoke first, wiping the tears off his face, “So.. we really died huh.” 

Luke laughed, “Yeah, we kinda did.”

“And what a lame way for us to go. We got to have had the lamest band death of all time.” Reggie spoke, moving towards Luke. 

Alex began to smile for the first time since dying, standing up and heading towards the other two guys, “If I thought my parents were disappointed in me before, imagine how they’ll react to my cause of death.”

Reggie lifted his hand, “Lift your hands boys, a toast to the dumbest death to ever exist.”

Alex laughed, lifting his hand, “Hey Luke, if we are the lamest death, that means we actually did accomplish something.”

Luke rolled his eyes, joining the other two “I guess.” Sure Luke still felt incredibly angry and stupid, but he was going to be incredibly angry and stupid with his best friends till the end of time, so why not take a break for a minute. 

The three laughed again for two minutes, nudging each other as they quietly lamented about the worst hour of their un-life. But as quickly as it began, a sudden stillness hit, and Reggie turned abruptly from the guys, his anxiety spiking as he asked, “Do you see the bright light or is that just me.” 

Alex turned to face his friend, “What are you talking abo—”

And then, nothing.


End file.
